


Caged

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Dark, F/M, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mystery, Oh My God, Suicide, What Have I Done, Why Did I Write This?, makoharu - Freeform, other minor ships - Freeform, reigisa - Freeform, sourin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-17 05:56:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15454830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Makoto had never enjoyed horror movies. Some people liked being scared, but he certainly didn't. Maybe he should've made an effort to watch more. Maybe that would've prepared him for what happened.





	1. Rei's Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a normal day in Iwatobi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter is pretty boring, sorry about that... But it'll get a lot more exciting later on, I can promise that! Updates will probably be around once every two weeks, maybe more frequent if I have loads of free *haha pun* time :)
> 
> Also, this chapter is pretty tame. Later on it'll get much darker, and I'll make sure to put warnings at the beginning of each chapter. 
> 
> One last note, this is all set sometime in Eternal Summer. I stray from the canon events A LOT (not in this chapter, but later) so that's just so you know the timeline :)

Makoto's POV

It was a beautiful day. 

The sun was shining, outlining objects with its bright glow and casting shadows that danced in the changing light. Nature was flourishing, plants coloured a healthy green, and the chorus of morning bird-song filling the streets.

When weather was like this, it was hard not to smile. Not that this was too much of a struggle for Makoto, as he smiled more often than not. However, he couldn't help but hope that the perfect weather would cast a smile on the face of a certain friend of his... It was a miracle when Haru smiled, and Makoto had come to cherish those fleeting moments.

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Makoto carried on his journey. Stealing glances at people as they walked past, waving occasionally, sometimes even staring out to the glistening surface of the ocean. He didn't have to keep his eyes on the path, he had walked this course so many times that the route had long-since been painted forever in the back of his mind.

He climbed the stairs, momentarily stopping for the little hug-session with the neighbourhood cat. It had become something of a daily routine, and he even found himself worrying when the ball of white fluff wasn't there to greet him every morning. He still didn't know who the beauty belonged to, but they were definitely lucky.

Haru's house sat on top of the hill, to the right, just after the top of the steps. It was a simple building, two-stories high with neat rooftiles and clean windows. 

Makoto knocked on the door twice, although he didn't expect an answer. It was just courteous to knock before entering, he had always thought, and felt uncomfortable when just unlocking the door and stepping in withour prior action. 

"Excuse me," Makoto announced as he stepped over the threshold. He was greeted with an empty hallway, as per usual at this time in the morning, and headed further in towards the bathroom. 

After briefly checking for Haru's clothes in the nearby basket to confirm his friend's presence, Makoto pushed through the thin curtains that draped from the top of the doorway, and entered the bathroom. 

Sure enough, upon his arrival, a raven-haired head burst from the surface of the bathwater, spraying tiny droplets of liquid throughout the room. Haru glanced up, his deep blue eyes blinking as Makoto offered his hand. "Good morning, Haru-ch-" 

"Quit calling me 'chan' already," Haru mumbled, but took the outstretched hand anyway. Makoto smiled, then proceeded to bustle Haru out of the house in his typical motherly fashion. 

*****

Much to Makoto's relief, the day went by quickly, and the time for Swim Club approached. He may not be quite as eager to be in the water as Haru, but Makoto still enjoyed swimming, and spending time with Nagisa, Rei and Gou was always exciting. Besides, with the weather as it was, being in the pool would be extremely refreshing after the hardwork spent in classes. After all, this was Makoto's last year at high school, and he was having to prepare himself for the future, as daunting as it was. He hadn't really come to terms yet with the fact that everything would change so drastically, and there was nothing any of them could do about it. The daunting dread that after these few months, the daily routine that he had taken advantage of just this morning would never happen again, and Haru would disappear from his life. But... There was no point thinking pessimistically like this. There was still time to make memories, to strengthen bonds. And he would make certain that was exactly what would happen. 

The sun had refused to hide all day, and still reigned the skies. The pool was a beautiful blue, and Makoto almost felt as if he could understand Haru's statement of pool-water beng tamed. It did seem so gentle, so welcoming, almost alive, the sunlight causing the water to sparkle as if it were smiling. 

Everyone was already there when Makoto arrived, despite him being on time. Maybe they were also extremely keen to get into the water. 

Of course, Haru was already swimming laps. As he stretched and prepared to get in, Makoto couldn't help but watch Haru's strong, clean stroke. It had always looked so natural, as if there was no other place for Haru but here. However, for Makoto... He had even been frightened of the water, and the ocean. This was why he had the doubts concerning the future, as, although the two of them had been together for so long, they were so different. It seemed that the world just wanted different things for them. 

Shaking his head slightly to clear his clogged mind, he got into the pool. As expected, the water was a comfort to his tired body, and a smile painted his features at the sensation. He had been smiling a lot today, despite the negative thoughts. 

After swimming a length of backstroke, Makoto paused. It didn't feel right, for some reason. He glanced to the side, and spotted Rei and Nagisa having a conversation with Gou, who was studying her clipboard. Haru was still going strong a few lanes over, and Makoto found himself studying Haru's stroke again, watching his movements, the effortless perfection. 

He wished he could be like that. 

He wished he could swim free, like Haru. 

And suddenly, Makoto had an idea. 

He pushed himself up against the side, and stood, dripping in the sunlight for a few seconds. Then, he headed over to Rei, Nagisa and Gou, smiling as their attention turned to him.

"I was thinking about prefecturals... Although there's still some time before we have to submit our tournament entry..." 

There was a faint sloshing sound from behind him, signalling that Haru had also left the pool to listen in on the conversation. 

"And, apart from our original events, there's..." Makoto trailed off thoughtfully, rubbing his chin and waiting for the other's to finish his sentence. Sure enough...

"The medley relay!" All three of the others shouted, their eyes shining in anticipation. It was no secret that the medley relay was what everyone loved most, and was the thing they were all looking forward to. Makoto was the same, the unforgettable feeling of swimming in a team effort with his friends was unrivaled, but there was one other thing that he wanted to say... But first, he had to check up on Haru. 

"What abut you, Haru?" 

"I only..." Haru paused, causing the others to hold their breath dramatically. Meanwhile, Makoto already knew what Haru was going to say. He had always been able to read Haru well, and there had only been a few times when he'd been shocked by something that Haru had said or done. 

"...Swim freestyle and relays." 

"So, we're in the relay, then," Makoto said as everyone let out sighs of relief. "For individual events, we'll each choose our own before the entry date. As for me, since it's my last year, I think I'll try entering the freestyle, too." 

He was expecting more of a reaction to his announcement, but Nagisa simply said, "Oh, really? Then maybe I'll enter butterfly, too!"

However, there was the feeling of eyes on his back, undoubtedly from Haru. 

"Isn't butterfly your weakest stroke?" Makoto asked, smiling so no offence was carried with his question. 

"This is really exciting, somehow!" Nagisa cried, clenching his fists in eagerness. He turned to Rei, "Hey, Rei-chan, why don't you try entering the breaststroke?" 

"Never mind entering." Rei also clenched his fists, but Makoto guessed it was because of a different emotion. "I still can't swim any stroke but butterfly!" 

Rei pushed up his glasses and turned away in dissmissal, causing Nagisa's excitement to turn into a supportive sadness. 

"What? Don't say that! You're not the same Rei-chan you used to be," He said, small blonde head trying to peek over Rei's shoulder. "I bet at this point, you could swim any stroke you want!" 

"You think so?" Rei turned a little, sounding slightly interested. 

"That's true..." Gou spoke for the first time, staring down at the tiled pool-edge thoughtfully. "After all, you study up on swimming every day, Rei-kun." 

"I guess it would be possible, at least..." Rei was considering it, which was, at least, a start. "But ever since-"

"But, now that you can swim," Makoto interrupted, not wishing to hear Rei put himself down again. "I bet your backstroke would be beautiful, Rei." 

Rei tensed for a moment, his purple eyes blinking as a familiar calculating look took over his face. And then...

"All right, then! I shall present a beautiful backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle stroke to all of you!" 

Both Nagisa and Gou let out high-pitched cheers of approval, and Makoto smiled warmly. It was true, when Rei had first started out as a member, everyone had begun to lose hope after he'd somehow managed to stay afloat with any of their designated strokes. However, as Makoto had said, now that Rei had the additional confidence of his butterfly, it may give him the extra push to be capable in all four strokes. And, knowing Rei, the insane amount of studying and theory he put into his technique would create perfect style. 

\--------------------------------------------------------

"WHY?!?" 

The session had been stopped, the focus now landing on Rei and his new strokes. However, as if mirroring his experience from before, Rei just couldn't break the surface on any of them. 

"Don't get discouraged, Rei-kun!" Gou cried, ever-supportive. 

"Your form is perfect, Rei-chan!" Nagisa added over the pitiful wailings of Rei in the background. Makoto just get the smile on his face, feeling nothing but pity for his friend. 

"Don't rush. Take your time getting the hang of it," He, too, offered some comforting words. 

Rei didn't directly respond to any of their words, and instead glared sunnenly at the water, which was coloured a deep yellow as the evening drew closer. They wouldn't be able to stay out much longer. 

"Rei. You don't need to force yourself to swim something different. As long as you have one swimming style of your own, that's enough, isn't it?" Haru's voice was even, his words seeming to immediately calm Rei. After all, with Haru was a natural in the water who could probably suceed in every stroke, but blatantly refused to swim anything other than freestyle. 

Deeming the session to be over, with both the lateness and convenient timing, Makoto called everyone into the changing rooms. Haru, as always, was reluctant to leave the pool, but to everyone's surprise, Rei was rushing as he changed, and had finished far before the others. 

"You're being quick today, Rei-chan," Nagisa observed. 

"Well, yes," Rei replied, pushing up his glasses. "With my little dilemma from earlier, I forgot that I had a project to do." 

"A project?" Makoto asked, rubbing his wet hair with a towel. "It's unlike you to leave a project for school until the last minute." 

"I didn't leave it until the last minute, it was actually set today. However, the subject is... Interesting, mysterious and... Superstitious, you could say?" 

Makoto raised an eyebrow at this. 

"Superstitious?" Nagisa also seemed pretty curious. "You don't really agree with superstitious stuff, Rei-chan."

"That's right," Rei said. "But, this subject in particular... It's different." 

"What's it about?" 

"A disease. Well, maybe not a physical one, but a disease nonetheless. It's slightly mythical, hence the superstitious feeling about it, but I find it quite fascinating."

Makoto was tempted to ask more about Rei's project, but the other seemed so excited, and it would be cruel to keep him from getting started on his anticipated work. 

"Well, Rei, we'll look forward to seeing it when it's finished," Makoto smiled, causing a grin to also light up Rei's face. And, taking Makoto's words as a signal that he was allowed to leave, hurried out with his bag slung over his shoulder. 

Nagisa also depareted shortly after, muttering about Rei's inability to wait, leaving just Makoto and Haru in the changing room.

"Alright, Haru, shall we- Oh my goodness, why haven't you changed?" Makoto seemed to have been too caught up in Rei's 'project conversation' to notice that Haru had just sat in the corner and stayed in his soggy swimming trunks. 

Haru simply blinked up at him, causing Makoto to whine, "Haruuuuu, you can't walk home like that!" 

"I'm not. I'm going to stay a swim a little longer." 

This time it was Makoto's turn to blink despondently, as his brain processed Haru's word. And then... The mother-senses kicked in. 

"What?!? Y-You can't stay this late, you'll get told off, o-or catch a cold, Haru, the sun is already setting, the pool isn't going to be that warm now-" 

"It's fine, Makoto." 

"...Why did you come into the changing rooms anyway, if you were just going to stay?" Makoto asked, still not satisfied. 

"I wanted to see what Nagisa was making such a big fuss about. I was just going to leave, but the conversation got pretty interesting." 

Makoto paused for a moment to silently congratulate Rei for speaking an interesting enough idea to keep Haru away from water. But, ignoring that fact, Makoto wouldn't give up that easily. He could be stubborn, when he wanted to.

"You'll be staying after school hours, Haru-chan. It's late enough as it is, and if you get in trouble, some serious actions might be taken! Like... Even banning the swim club!" 

"You're overreacting. And drop the 'chan.'" 

"But if you do get a cold, then you won't be able to swim for a little while! Wouldn't that be terrible?" 

"Makoto, it's literally one of the warmest days of the year. You wouldn't stop talking about the weather on the way to school." 

"...Well, I'll at least wait for you," He said, stubbornly folding his arms over his chest and sitting down on a nearby bench. 

"You don't have to do that." 

"Yes, I do." 

"No, you don't." 

"Just be glad I'm letting you swim a little longer, Haru." Makoto even decided to drop the 'chan,' to show his sternness. Haru paused, sensing Makoto's determination. 

"Fine."

Makoto didn't really see the point in changing back into his swim attire, so instead opted to stay behind in the changing rooms. The hovering danger of being caught after hours at the pool would simply be too much for him to handle, so cowering in the changing rooms felt a lot safer. 

Haru padded out to the pool area, and Makoto made a mental note to go and fetch him if things really did get too late. There was school again tomorrow, after all. 

He sat back against the wall, listening to the melodic splashing of Haru in water, trying to figure out his reasoning for entering the freestyle. Makoto would be competing against Haru, but that why he was doing it in the first place. After all the years they had spent together, they had never had a proper, competitive race. Not once. And, maybe it was jealousy of Rin, or maybe he just didn't want them to drift apart without having done something like this. 

And they would drift apart. Their futures lead in different directions, and despite neither of them deciding on a definite path yet, it was pretty much inevitable. 

Makoto could only hope that when he did part with Haru, it wouldn't be too painful.


	2. Study Sessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagisa wants a little help with some schoolwork, and goes over to Rei's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, my WiFi actually hates me. It cut out half way through as I was writing this, so when I went to save my work, all of the stuff I'd written got deleted ;-; Anyway, so I know that there's an entire episode dedicated to Nagisa's dislike for studying, but I do kind of need to deviate from the canon plot here, sorry. :3

Rei's POV

Rei couldn't sleep. 

This wasn't exactly unusual, he had never been that good at just drifting off as soon as his head hit the pillow, but the time was getting slightly out-of-hand. Having spent over two hours just lying in bed, tossing and turning as thoughts filled his head, Rei decided to take action. 

Part of the reason for his late-night alertness was swimming. To be more specific, his dilemma with the strokes. It made him feel quite jealous, watching Haru swim, as he never seemed to think about actually performing too much, and just... Did it. Whereas, Rei, who had spent countless hours studying and researching every little aspect of each stroke, could never swim any of them apart from butterfly. 

That was irritating. And, as much as he hated it, he couldn't help but feel that he was the weakest link in the swim team. It was true, despite anything the others might say. It may be convenient that he could swim the butterfly stroke, the only one that wasn't the favourite of anyone else, but that was all he counted for. And he wasn't happy with that.

He would be useful. At least, he would become a far more vital member of the team than he was at that moment. And, the only way to do that, was to learn the other strokes. To properly learn them, as his technique may be flawless, but it didn't count for anything if he couldn't stay afloat. 

But, who could he go to? 

Makoto and Nagisa had already tried giving him so coaching advice, but it didn't help. Coach Sasabe was an obvious choice, but Rei wasn't too sure about him. Besides, with the old swimming pool opening up again, Coach Sasabe had to spend almost all of his time with the children there. And... Haru probably couldn't be bothered, or he would end up telling Rei to 'accept the water,' and Rei had no clue as to what that meant. 

And then, it hit him. 

Why not ask the person on another team, but was still a close friend nonetheless? Why not ask the person who had a flawless butterfly and freestlye stroke, showing that they had the ability to swim more than one? 

Rei reached across to his bedside table, fumbling to find his lamp's light switch. The sudden light came as a surprise, and Rei had to blink his eyes to try and rid them of their dreariness. Everything was still a little blurry, due to his lack of glasses, and so he turned to grab the muffled red outline that sat beside the lamp switch.

After successfully regaining his sight, Rei momentarily unplugged his phone from the charging socket, and opened up a new chat with Rin. They hadn't directly exchanged numbers, but Nagisa had created a little 'swimming chat' so they knew each other's contacts anyway. 

Pushing his glasses up slightly, Rei pondered over how to phrase his message. It was extremely late, and he knew that Rin wouldn't be replying until the morning, but Rei wanted to ask now in case he lost heart in the morning. 

'Hello, Rin. Apologies for texting at this hour, but I want to ask you about meeting to swim. You see, I'd quite like to improve my other strokes, and I was wondering if you would consider helping me learn and develop them. Thank you, - Rei.'

Rei stared down at the text for a few seconds, proof-reading it for any spelling mistakes. After deeming it acceptable, he pressed the little 'send' button and watched the text leave to travel to Rin's inbox. 

As soon as it was sent, however, he cursed himself. Rin probably had his phone in his room, and it might've rung out as Rei's message delivered, waking both Rin and whoever his roommate was. 

Sighing to himself, as there was nothing to do about it now, Rei took of his glasses and placed them on his beside table again. He turned off the light, and brought his arms behind his head, staring up at his bare ceiling. 

The other thing that was keeping him awake was his project. For some reason, every inch of his body was itching to get to work on it. He had been in situations like these before, when a subject was simply so interesting that he couldn't bear not to be studying it, but this time it was slightly different. There was something unnatural about this feeling. All Rei wanted to do was get his work finished so that he could move on, but he didn't want it to end, either. And all he'd done so far was a paragraph, after crossing it out in disgust a few minutes later. 

He'd also only done a little bit of research so far, and hadn't moved onto the main details of the subject yet. It was quite fascinating, though, that it seemed like such an unreal and far-fetched thing, yet there were multiple examples of it that had occurred in the past. Maybe it was all just a coincidence, but something in Rei's brain told him otherwise. 

Swallowing the strange feeling that was beginning to settle in his stomach, Rei turned over and continued his struggle for sleep. 

\--------------------

Rei felt terrible. 

He had hideous eye-bags that his glasses failed to conceal, his hair was unkept, and his brain felt dead. He still went to school, though. 

Unfortunatey, he didn't have the class involving his project, and instead had to sit through preparations for his upcoming math test. It was a good distraction, although an irritating and stressfull one, that left his mind feeling even more exhausted than before. 

His bedraggled appearance sent Makoto into mother-mode at swimming, and the captain had even suggested that Rei missed out on the session for that day. However, Rei was stubborn, and practiced his strokes with the same passion as always. 

"Are you sure you're alright, Rei?" Makoto's question startled Rei out of his thoughts, which had been stuck on his project for the entire day.

"I'm fine, Makoto-senpai," Rei said, pushing his glasses up his nose as he zipped up his swimming bag. "Just a little tired, I have a math test coming up tomorrow. Lots of studying in preparation, you know?" 

"Oh no!" Nagisa let out an agonized cry, and it didn't take Rei long to work out why. 

"Nagisa-kun, did you forget to study again?" He scolded, turning to the blonde who had huddled in a corner out of misery. Sighing at the pitiful sight, Rei spoke without thinking, "If you would like, you can spend an hour or so at my house, and I can give you a little extra hand." 

At his words, Nagisa perked up, his pink eyes shining. "Really, Rei-chan?" 

"Yes," Rei said, internally cursing himself. Although he wanted to spend the rest of his evening working on his project, Nagisa was obviously in need of a little help, and he wasn't going to deny that. Besides, it would be rude to retract his offer after the odd excitement Nagisa was showing for their joint study session. 

"Thank you so much, Rei-chan! Let me go and get my math stuff from my locker, meet you at the gate?" Without waiting for a reply, Nagisa bounded out of the room. Rei sighed, realising that Nagisa had forgotten to take his swimming bag with him, and therefore Rei would have to carry that himself. 

He stood and walked over to the door exiting the changing rooms, but stopped and turned back before leaving. Makoto was completely dressed back into his school uniform, but had sat down on one of the benches and was leaning against the wall. His green eyes left the floor and travelled up to Rei's form. 

Rei tilted his head slightly, wondering if Makoto was going to head out or not. Seeming to read Rei's thoughts, the brunette shook his head and smiled softly. "Haru's staying late to practice more again, but you go on ahead." 

Rei nodded. "See you tomorrow, Makoto-senpai." 

"Yeah, see you tomorrow. And don't overwork yourself!" Makoto called after him as Rei closed the door gently behind him. 

Summer was in full bloom, the sun still out and shining with strength. Rei blinked as the light hit his eyes at full blast, and continued towards the gate, his bag and Nagisa's both draped over his shoulders. 

Nagisa wasn't at the gate when Rei arrived, so he unceremoniously dropped their bags on the pavement and leaned against the fence. Tapping his foot impatiently on the concrete, he took his phone out of his pocket to check the time. It really would be a disaster if Nagisa was late enough that the two of them missed the earliest train to get home.

Rei's eyes widened slightly when he saw a new text notification on his phone, and it took him a full ten seconds to remember the message he had sent Rin last night. Fingers oddly shaky, Rei opened the chat and read Rin's message. 

'Sure, I'd be cool with that! And yea, my phone was completely bust last night, so don't worry about waking me up or anything. And just come over to Samezuka whenever you want after school, chances are I'll be in the pool somewhere' 

Rei beamed, and made a mental note to meet Rin once he had finished his project. Just as he raised his fingers to type a grateful reply, a high-pitched voice came calling out behind him. 

"Rei-chaaaaaan!" 

Sighing through his nose, Rei pocketed his phone and turned around to Nagisa, who was racing towards the gate, nearly tripping over his little legs in the process. 

"Nagisa-kun, I brought your swim stuff. You really should try to remember these things." 

"Yeah, yeah," Nagisa rolled his eyes playfully, taking his things from Rei with a small giggle. "Let's go!" 

The two of them set off to the station, where they arrived just in time for the train, much to Rei's relief. Nagisa spent most of the time chatting away about how boring school was (excluding the swim club, of course) and went on to plot the demise of homework. Rei simply sat and listened, smiling occasionally when Nagisa's ideas became a little too wacky for him to keep straight-faced. 

"You know, Rei-chan, I don't think I've actually been to your house before," Nagisa said thoughtfully as they left the train to continue their journey on foot. "I bet your room is full of books. Really boring ones too, about school."

"Well, I might have a few," Rei admitted, "But-" 

"Oh, I know! I've always wondered how long you've had your glasses for, and why you never change them, and how they're always so clean in the morning. So... What if you have an entire closet for them? Like, one for every day of the week!"

"I do not have a glasses closet." 

"But what if you do, though?" 

"Well, you'll see my room for yourself in a few minutes anyway," Rei said, pushing his glasses up self-consciously. 

"I'll check your closet for glasses." 

"Nagisa-kun, I do not have a glasses closet!" 

\--------------------

Rei was slightly nervous leaving Nagisa alone in his room as he went downstairs to fetch some drinks to accompany their work. After finding no glasses closet, much to his disappointment, Nagisa had begun to scout around Rei's room in hope of something else embarrassing. 

"I'm back, you didn't break anything, did you?" Rei asked as he hurriedly returned to the room. Nagisa was currently checking under the pillows, and glanced up at Rei's arrival, a disapproving look on his face. 

"Rei-chan, your room is so boring! You don't have as many books as I thought you would, either." 

"Speaking of books..." Rei placed their drinks on the floor, where he brought down two cushions from his bed for added comfort. "Are you alright to just get on with your work, or do you need any help?" 

"Hm..." Nagisa pouted slightly as he thought, causing Rei to smile a little at the cuteness. "I think I'm fine. You do whatever you want, I'll just call if I'm stuck."

And with that, Nagisa flopped down on one of the cushions with his textbook, lying on his front and propping his head up with his elbows. Rei watched for a second, and then went to his socket to grab his laptop for research.

Although he was more than happy to help Nagisa pass his test, there was also the desperation to continue with his own project. And so, his fingers trembling with excitement, Rei opened his laptop and directed his browser to his website from yesterday. 

It wasn't long before he began writing notes, his body almost moving in a robotic-fashion as his eyes flicked from the screen and back down onto his notepad. The room was blanketed in a comfortable silence, disturbed only by the scratching of Rei's pencil on paper and the flutter of pages as Nagisa turned each one over.

Rei was so engrossed in his work that he barely registered Nagisa closing his textbook and placing it to the side in disdain. 

"Math sucks."

"It's also important," Rei added, keeping his gaze fixed on the paragraph he was currently reading. Nagisa sighed dramatically and sat back, leaning on Rei's bed as he watched the other work. 

"Hey, Rei-chan? What actually that it about?"

Rei perked up at Nagisa's question, slowly dragging his eyes away from his screen to look at his friend. He eagerly sat up, wanting to show off the hard-work that he had put into his project, but also was hoping to have a discussion about the fascinating subject. 

"Well... It doesn't seem to have an official name, from what I've seen so far," Rei said, glancing down at his notes occasionally to check. "But, people have taken to calling the victims 'Caged.' 

"Caged? Why Caged?" 

"To put it simply, it's a brain disease that can be caught by anyone. The reason why it's called Caged, I suppose, is because the brain slowly deteriorates and destroys itself until only the disturbing parts are left." 

"That's... Horrible..." 

"But, it's not just that. First of all, the disease is extremely rare. The sources say that it occurs roughly every fifty years. It's also contagious, so anyone who's near the person who caught the illness first... The host, you could say, also have the risk of getting infected. The symptoms vary for different people, but the most common two are insanity and murderous desires. Probably the most disturbing thing about this is that it's almost impossible to recognise. No matter how close you are to the person infected, you may never know until they eventually snap. And the person wouldn't even know themselves, not until it's too late."

Nagisa had gradually been paling throughout Rei's speech, and let out an audible gulp as the definition finally came to an end. 

"B-But luckily... It's not real, right?" He said hopefully, a nervous smile breaking out onto his face. He waited patiently for Rei to reply, to shrug off the fear that had settled in the once-comfortable atmosphere. When he received no reply, Nagisa asked uncertainly, "Rei-chan?" 

"I am afraid that may not be the case, Nagisa-kun. There have been multiple cases that have occurred in the past, where friend groups have suddenly gone rogue." 

"But... How do you stop it?" 

“Ah, that's an interesting one. It says that you have to kill the host, and then the disease will retract itself from any other victims." 

Rei turned back to the computer, opening up a new website to try and fish out some more facts. However, he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed that Nagisa hadn't revealed any of his personal thoughts on the matter. 

"Nagisa-kun, what do you think of it?" 

"Me? Think of what?" 

"Caged. Do you think it's real?"

Nagisa paused. "I don't know... But I hope it's not. Besides, even if any of my friends got Caged, I'm sure I would be able to tell!" 

Rei wasn't exactly satisfied with that answer, but he turned away and carried on with his research nonetheless. He could feel Nagisa's gaze lingering on his back, but didn't bother turning. Nagisa was probably just bored. 

"Rei-chan?" 

"Mm?" 

"You seem really into this. It's kinda creeping me out."

Again, Rei reluctantly dragged his eyes from his screen, but hesitated when he saw Nagisa's face. He had been so engrossed in his explanation and discussion that he had failed to recognise how obviously uncomfortable Nagisa had become. His skin was pale, lacking its usual cute flush, and there were even tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

Rei wasn't exactly sure what to say, and instead opened his arms slightly to offer a hug. Any other time he would've held back from making such contact, but this was Nagisa, and Nagisa was upset. 

"I'm sorry," Nagisa sniffled, bunding himself into Rei's arms. "I know I'm probably overreacting, but... I-I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Nagisa's hair tickled the underneath of Rei's chin as he said, "Nagisa-kun, don't worry. You said it yourself, it's probably not real. A coincidence. Besides... the fact that our friendship group would even catch anything like that is minute."

They settled into another, more comfortable silence, as Rei stared at the wall over Nagisa's head. "And, I admit, I am quite interested in it, but I'm not going to get obsessed or anything." 

Nagisa let out a little whimper in agreement, before wiggling out of Rei's arms and forcing a smile onto his face. "I think I'll go home now, Rei-chan. I'm kinda tired from all of the work." 

"Really?" Rei failed to mask his surprise. He'd expected that he'd be the one that suggested Nagisa's leave, when he became too hyperactive to handle. But, it seems that wouldn't be the case.

"Yeah... Thank you, Rei-chan." 

"B-But I didn't even help."

"I like your company, though," Nagisa beamed, and this time the smile seemed a little less fake. Rei flushed and turned away indignantly. 

"Well... Just make sure you study next time!" 

"I will! Bye, Rei-chan!" 

"See you tomorrow." 

Rei accompanied Nagisa to the door, subtly checking that nothing had been left behind. As soon as Nagisa's bouncing form was out of sight (it would be impossible to tell that he'd been near-tears a few minutes ago) Rei dragged himself up to his bedroom. 

After just one second of staring at his computer, he was back in position, scrawling notes and reading until his eyes watered.


End file.
